New Year’s Message

Tetsuo Yamakawa

President
The ITU Association of JapanThe very best wishes to all in this New Year!
2022 was a year of great change, beginning with
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early spring. In Ukraine
the fighting continues and there is no resolution in sight, but thedispute must be stopped, the damaged towns and infrastructure must
be restored, and people’s lives must be returned to normal. There is alsostrong desire to employ our collective wisdom to find peaceful solutions
to the energy problems, the disorder in logistics, the rising commodity
prices and other difficulties that this invasion has caused around theworld, and to restore safety and orderly daily life and economic activityfor all.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues with varying conditions ineach country so we will need to keep monitoring these trends, but we
expect new developments in the coming year and have high hopes for agood and prosperous year.
Meetings and events in the past year with our related organizations,the ITU and APT, included the World Telecommunication
Standardization Assembly (WTSA) held in Geneva in March, theWorld Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) heldin Kigali, Rwanda in June, and the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference(PP-22) held in Bucharest, Romania in September and October.
One particularly notable event at PP-22 was that NTT’s Dr. Seizo
ONOE was elected as the Director of the ITU Telecommunication
Standardization Bureau. We heartily celebrate this event and hope thebest for his efforts in his various activities at the ITU. Japan was also
elected as a Council Member State in the same conference. The ITUAJ also supported work at the on-site offices for PP-22. At the WTSAin March, candidates from Japan were selected for two ITU-T TSAG/SG chairperson positions and seven vice-chairperson positions, and at
WTDC in June, candidates from Japan were selected for two ITU-D
SG vice-chairperson positions. We wish them every success in theirefforts.
On May 17, the ITU-AJ also held our annual “Celebration ofWorld Telecommunication and Information Society Day” (WTISD)
at the Keio Plaza Hotel, also streaming it on line. At the ceremony,Dr. Kohei SATOH (NICT) received the MIC Minister’s Award for
his activities in international standardization at the ITU and APTover many years. Dr. Chieko ASAKAWA (IBM Fellow, IBM Corp.;
Chief Executive Director of the National Museum of Emerging
Science and Innovation (Miraikan); IBM Distinguished Service
Professor, Carnegie Mellon University) also received an ITU-AJ
Special Achievement award, and delivered the Anniversary Keynote
Presentation. Eleven Accomplishment Awards and 18 Encouragement
Awards were also conferred. We offer sincere congratulations to allrecipients!
This year in the telecommunications field, we expect commercial
5G services to become widely established and to advance. Through 5Gand other ICT technologies, we hope to find solutions to social issues
and to make a leap toward Society 5.0.
In November, the ITU will hold a Radiocommunication Assembly(RA) and the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) inDubai, UAE. We will prepare for these conferences, using our pastexperience and collaborating with those who are involved in ITU andAPT meetings and events.
Within ITU-AJ, we plan to continue operation of our Japan
Platform for Driving Digital Development (JPD3), which began in2020. In February and March, we will also support the Japan booth
exhibit at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023 in Barcelona,which is a new initiative for us. Through these efforts we plan to help
with expansion of Japanese ICT enterprises globally.
I would like to offer our gratitude to all who have supported theITU-AJ, and we will continue and increase our efforts to be a bridge
between the Japanese government, our supporting members, and theITU into the future.
I also wish you all a heartfelt Happy New Year and wish all healthand vitality in the year ahead.
■ Dr. Seizo ONOE elected as director of the TSB■ Guests and Award-winners at the WTISD celebration

New Breeze Winter 20233